§ 32:661 — Operating a vehicle under the influence of alcoholic beverages or illegal substance or

Louisiana § 32:661

• Jurisdiction: Louisiana
• Title 32: Levees

Text

§661. Operating a vehicle under the influence of alcoholic beverages or illegal substance or
controlled dangerous substances; implied consent to chemical tests; administering of
test and presumptions
A.(1) Any person, regardless of age, who operates a motor vehicle upon the public
highways of this state shall be deemed to have given consent, subject to the provisions of
R.S. 32:662, to a chemical test or tests of his blood, breath, urine, or other bodily substance
for the purpose of determining the alcoholic content of his blood and the presence of any
drug in his blood if arrested for any offense arising out of acts alleged to have been
committed while the person was driving or in actual physical control of a motor vehicle
while believed to be under the influence of alcoholic beverages, any drug, combination of
drugs, or combination of alcohol and drugs.
(2)(a) The test or tests shall be administered at the direction of a law enforcement
officer having reasonable grounds to believe the person, regardless of age, to have been
driving or in actual physical control of a motor vehicle upon the public highways of this state
while under the influence of either alcoholic beverages, any drug, combination of drugs, or
combination of alcohol and drugs. The law enforcement agency by which such officer is
employed shall designate in writing and under what conditions which of the aforesaid tests
shall be administered.
(b) In the case of all traffic fatalities, the coroner or his designee shall perform or
cause to be performed a toxicology screen on the victim or victims of all traffic fatalities for
determining evidence of any alcoholic content of the blood and the presence of any drug, or
combination of drugs, which shall include the extracting of all bodily substance samples
necessary for such toxicology screen. The coroner or his designee shall be responsible for
ensuring that the body is not removed from his custody until such time as the bodily
substance samples are extracted. The coroner's report shall be made available to the
investigating law enforcement agency and may be admissible in any court of competent
jurisdiction as evidence of the alcoholic content of the blood and the presence of any drug,
or combination of drugs, at the time of the fatality. The coroner or his designee shall
determine, by the most current and accepted scientific method available, whether the
presence of alcoholic content in the blood of the deceased is the result of pre-death ingestion
of alcoholic beverages or the postmortem synthesis of ethanol. Nothing in this Subparagraph
shall be construed to limit the authority of the investigating law enforcement agency from
conducting an investigation of the accident scene concurrently with the coroner or his
designee.
(3) If the person is under twenty-one years of age, the test or tests shall be
administered at the direction of a law enforcement officer having reasonable grounds to
believe the person to have been driving or in actual physical control of a motor vehicle upon
the public highways of this state after having consumed alcoholic beverages. The law
enforcement agency by which the officer is employed shall designate in writing and under
what conditions which of the tests shall be administered.
B. Any person who is dead, unconscious or otherwise in a condition rendering him
incapable of refusal shall be deemed not to have withdrawn the consent provided by
Subsection A of this section, and the test or tests may be administered subject to the
provisions of R.S. 32:662.
C.(1) When a law enforcement officer requests that a person submit to a chemical
test as provided for above, he shall first read to the person a standardized form approved by
the Department of Public Safety and Corrections. The department is authorized to use such
language in the form as it, in its sole discretion, deems proper, provided that the form does
inform the person of the following:
(a) His constitutional rights under Miranda v. Arizona.
(b) That his driving privileges can be suspended for refusing to submit to the
chemical test.
(c) That his driving privileges can be suspended if he submits to the chemical test
and such test results show a blood alcohol level of 0.08 percent or above or, if he is under
the age of twenty-one years, a blood alcohol level of 0.02 percent or above.
(d) That his driving privileges can be suspended if he submits to the chemical test
and the test results show a positive reading indicating the presence of any controlled
dangerous substance listed in R.S. 40:964. The department may exclude this warning from
the form required by this Paragraph until such time as a suspension for a test result shows a
positive reading indicating the presence of any controlled dangerous substance listed in R.S.
40:964 is enacted by the legislature.
(e) That refusal to submit to a chemical test after an arrest for an offense of driving
while intoxicated if he has refused to submit to such test on two previous and separate
occasions of any previous such violation is a crime under the provisions of R.S. 14:98.7 and
the penalties for such crime are the same as the penalties for first conviction of driving while
intoxicated.
(f) Repealed by Acts 2020, No. 40, §3, eff. June 4, 2020.
(2) In addition, the arresting officer shall, after reading said form, request the arrested
person to sign the form. If the person is unable or unwilling to sign, the officer shall certify
that the arrestee was advised of the information contained in the form and that the person was
unable to sign or refused to sign.
D. The notice issued to the person tested pursuant to R.S. 32:667 shall include the
name and employing agency of all law enforcement officers actively participating in the stop,
detention, investigation, or arrest of the person.
E. As used in this Chapter, the term "drug" means any substance or combination of
substances that, when taken into the human body, may impair the ability of the person to
operate a vehicle safely.
NOTE: Section 6 of Acts 2001, No. 781, provides that the provisions of the
Act shall become null and of no effect if and when Section 351 of P.L. 106-346 regarding the withholding of federal highway funds for failure to enact
a 0.08 percent blood alcohol level is repealed or invalidated for any reason.

Legislative History

Added by Acts 1968, No. 273, §14. Amended by Acts 1972, No. 534, §2; Acts 1983, No. 632, §1, eff. Jan. 1, 1984; Acts 1984, No. 409, §1; Acts 1985, No. 382, §1, eff. July 10, 1985; Acts 1987, No. 338, §1; Acts 1994, 3rd Ex. Sess., No. 20, §2; Acts 1997, No. 1296, §3, eff. July 15, 1997; Acts 1997, No. 1297, §1, eff. July 15, 1997; Acts 1999, No. 1354, §1; Acts 2001, No. 781, §4, eff. Sept. 30, 2003; Acts 2003, No. 543, §2; Acts 2004, No. 318, §1; Acts 2020, No. 40, §§2, 3, eff. June 4, 2020; Acts 2024, No. 662, §2.